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Thousands in equipment stolen at Manitoba studio

This story came about through the power of social media. After noticing a post on a local instrument buy-and-sell page, I connected with the robbery victims via Facebook. The story ran in Metro Winnipeg on April 18, 2015.

Last week, Will Grierson thought the wind had knocked open the door of his house, but it didn’t take long to realize someone had kicked it in.

Grierson panicked when he realized his basement recording studio had been ransacked and thousands of dollars worth of equipment stolen.

The most precious pieces were six of seven guitars that his father had made by hand — one of which could be worth close to $10,000.

“It’s a weird violation, they could’ve hurt us in the pocket worse but it stings more because of the sentimental value of the things that are gone,” said Grierson.

He called police and put a message out on Facebook asking friends to keep an eye out for any of the unique guitars at local pawn shops.

“Pretty much every instrument was custom in some way and recognizable, which gives me a little bit of hope,” said Grierson.

He lives in the Fort Garry home with his brother and runs an independent recording studio out of the basement called Collector Studio.

Grierson and his business partner Arthur Anthony have produced albums for local bands like The Thrashers, Animal Teeth and French Press.

Luckily, nothing that was taken has affected the projects that they’re currently working on.

“They didn’t steal anything that is right to the livelihood of the recording studio,” said Grierson. “Because if I had lost the hard drives with current records on them that would’ve been a disaster.”

This isn’t the first time a break-in has happened in the neighbourhood.

Last July, Grierson’s garage was broken into and his brother Andrew caught someone breaking into their neighbour’s garage in the same month.

Between January and April last year there were 21 residential break and enters in River Heights – Fort Garry, compared to 22 this year, according to Winnipeg Police Service CrimeStat data.